Ponting And Murdoch

Not Rupert. Or James. But Billy Murdoch. He was the last Australia captain to lose an Ashes series twice in England, and Ricky Ponting is fast closing in on that dubious record. That much we know. But we (well, I, certainly) are less knowledgeable about Murdoch himself, so do have a read of his obituary - if only for the wonderfully antiquated language.

And here’s the Wisden Almanack report of the Australians’ ill-fated 1890 tour. “From whatever point of view it is looked at,” the report says, “the seventh tour of Australian cricketers in England can only be regarded as a failure.”

There is poetry in the similarities between the pair. Now that Ponting has overtaken Allan Border as Australia’s leading run-scorer, he can comfortably be described as one of their greatest-ever batsmen. And in 1890, so was Murdoch.

Naturally a good deal of the interest of the trip centred in the doings of W.L. Murdoch, who had returned to the game after an absence of about five years, and, as in 1880, 1882, and 1884, was captain of the side. It was rather a risky experiment for the greatest of all Australian batsmen to come back to first-class cricket after such a long interval, but the result proved that he had not misjudged his powers. It would be an exaggeration to say that he added anything to the laurels he had gained during his previous trips in England, but inasmuch as he scored the largest aggregate of runs and came out with the best average, it would be equally wrong to say that he failed. His style was as perfect as ever, and when the wickets were good he gave many a display of batting that was worthy of his best days.